Belleeks

Belleeks ( ) is a small village and townland in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The 2011 Census reported a population of 375. It lies within the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area and the historic barony of Upper Fews.

Belleeks ( ) is a small village and townland in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The 2011 Census reported a population of 375. It lies within the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area and the historic barony of Upper Fews.

Sport

Belleeks has a Gaelic Athletic Club, Laurence O'Toole's (Cumann Lorcáin Uí Thuathail), which competes in underage and senior men's and ladies' football, Scor and other Armagh GAA competitions. The clubhouse is in Shaughan in the townland of Belleeks Upper.

History

Early history

The area in which Belleeks is situated has been populated for thousands of years, but it contains less easily discernible prehistoric remains than are widely evident in other parts of South County Armagh. What was to become the village of Belleeks was once the site of a Tudor garrison, besieged and taken during the Great O'Neill's rebellion. The area to become the village was held in the estates of Hugh Boy O'Hanlon in 1641, one of the few Catholic gentry retaining substantial landholdings in County Armagh following the Plantation of Ulster, before the Rising of that year. Situated in the estates of the Earls of Gosford by the eighteenth century, the modern settlement largely owes its origins to the then-current earl, who, in the 1790s, created a planned village on the site. Before the Irish Land Acts, the Earls of Gosford retained a large Deerpark on the outskirts of the village, whose impressive 18th-century walls still bound the settlement to the east.

Pre-20th Century

By the early 19th century, a hamlet had developed at Belleeks along the Newtownhamilton-Newry road which branches off to Whitecross at Belleeks, Indeed, in February 1767 Sir Archibald Acheson was granted a patent to hold fairs in the village on the 3rd days of February, May, August and November every year, all bar which the February fair survived up until 1852. Census returns between 1841 and 1851, during which the Famine occurred, show a decrease in the village and surrounding area's population of greater than one quarter over the ten years due to death and emigration. During the 19th century, however, the settlement acted as the commercial centre for the surrounding region, with residents of outlying districts and nearby villages bringing butter, cheese, and other produce to Belleeks for sales and export to Belfast and beyond.

The Troubles 1969-1998

For more information on The Troubles, see The Troubles in Belleeks (Armagh), which includes a list of incidents in Belleeks during the Troubles resulting in two or more fatalities.

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1303153241 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.